Every year, many new students walk the halls of Mid-Pacific and often have a hard time adjusting to the change of scenery and campus culture, as well as making friends.

This year, there has been a greater emphasis on making everyone feel welcome. This emphasis is reflected in the school’s brand new mission statement: “To create a place of belonging that cultivates compassionate world-ready learners who make a positive impact through purpose-driven passions and creativity, rooted in our Christian heritage.”

This year’s freshman class brought in 60 new students, making the class of 2028 the biggest group of students on campus.

“I came from Star of the Sea and, to compare it with Mid-Pacific, Mid-Pacific has a bigger campus than my previous school. I applied to Mid-Pacific because I like the technology facilities that they have to offer. The people here are really nice and I’ve made good friends here,” freshman Spencer Takao said.

Takao also said his goal was to get into a good college and he believes that Mid-Pacific will help him acquire the right skills to get there. According to Niche, a website with “in-depth profiles on every school and college in America,” Mid-Pacific is #6 in Hawaii, with the best college prep.

Many new students were intrigued by the courses that Mid-Pacific offers, and how our school gives them opportunities to pursue their passions.

“I heard this is a good art school, and I’m really involved in the arts, like in ballet music. I also love doing visual arts. Everyone’s really nice in all my classes so that’s a good experience. It’s more relaxing, I would say. I really like how the academics work here. It is more light work compared to HBA, and it’s more relaxed, so I am able to focus on my passion and other interests,” freshman Janey Chang said.

Mid-Pacific also gives students many opportunities to develop leadership skills on their journey to become “world-ready learners.”

Chang mentioned that she wants to get more leadership experience here, and it is already happening for her., “I’m on the school’s intermediate soccer team and I was selected to be one of the three team leaders,” Chang said.

The transition to a new school can be difficult, however. Many students find it difficult at first because of the academic struggles, settling in on campus or social setbacks.

“Adjusting to Mid-Pacific has been both hard and not hard because the curriculum for this school and for homeschooling were different. Homeschooling was based more on logic, but the teachers at Mid-Pacific are more helpful and I feel like that’s what makes school easier to deal with,”new freshman Leilani Kelka said.

The sophomore class welcomed 16 new students this year, according to the sophomore dean, Rene Ochiai.

“I recently transferred from St. Louis, and I feel like Mid-Pacific has a less strict dress code than St. Louis because we were still required to wear uniforms in high school. My goals at this school are to figure out my talents and express them,” sophomore Ace Allen said.

The junior dean, Carly Ibara, said that there were four new students who were welcomed into the junior’s class. Cynthia Kinnear, the senior dean, acknowledged that only two new students joined the graduating class of 2025.

New senior Allison Lockwood made the move to Mid-Pacific from Le Jardin Academy. “Since switching over during senior year, I would say the adjustment was definitely rough because I had also moved from Kailua to Mānoa, and a lot of different aspects of my life had changed as well. I found friends really quickly here, so I’m super grateful for that, and I feel like this school is very well balanced and organized,” she said.

With all of these new students, there are so many people to talk to and there’s the possibility of making new friends.. Students that have been at Mid-Pacific longer could help with helping new students, especially the ones that have been here since kindergarten.

Erika Leong is one of those life-long Mid-Pacific students who has been attending since elementary school. She’s part of the math team and a part of the school theater programs, and has some words of advice for new students.

“I guess there’s a lot of different things at Mid-Pacific. So I think take the chances that you get to try new things and try out stuff because you might end up really liking it,” Leong said.